Ravel Hearts/Glowing Hearts Quilt Along

Hoo-ray! The Parade I’ve been waiting for is finally here and I am ready to participate. You may think by looking at my Ravel Hearts quilt that I’m in the wrong parade, but I’m not. I did make the nine hearts as in the mmmquilts Glowing Hearts pattern but as I confessed to Sandra, after participating in last years Luminous Layers QAL with the eight Sawtooth Stars made, I was still starstruck and couldn’t pass up making another one.

I tested and made two Hearts last March, one in a light colorway and one in a dark colorway and then sent Sandra a mock-up of how my quilt would look. I have to admit the dark 6.5” HST reminded me of Cat ears, which I thought was funny and will explain later in this Post. The plan was made to make four light blocks and five dark blocks and I did not start sewing the remaining blocks until mid May. It was when I was placing the light blocks on my design boards that I realized a Sawtooth Star could be made by changing the orientation of the heart blocks.

Since I hadn’t made the dark blocks yet, I play around in PicMonkey to see how this would look first with the light blocks forming the Sawtooth Star and thought it looked better with the dark blocks. This meant I would have to cut more patches to make one more Light Block but it was worth it. I really love the way this layout looked and pondered if I should warn Sandra that rebel mode has struck. I did and was glad when she responded with “You Go Girl” or could it be Canadian for “I’m Gonna Get You”?

Here’s a pic of the Free Spirit E Bond fabrics I used for Ravel Hearts, which the name was inspired by the Ravel Unravel Ink Text print. The top gray print was what I had planned to use for the sashing. I’ve had this fabric in my stash for several years and was hoping I would be able to use it for this year’s QAL and the pattern made great use of these wonderful prints. I looked up the definition of Ravel and it means a cluster which is serendipitous since the Sawtooth Star does look like a cluster of Hearts.  

I added a two-inch black border to Ravel Hearts making it a 40” square. I machine quilted it with my favorite quadrant straight lines in CT variegated gray thread on top with a steel gray on the bottom. The Black backing was found in my stash. This was such a nice and welcomed changed from all o the larger quilts I made so far this year.

Along with making my Ravel Hearts quilt, I also had to plan my annual collage of quilts made for Celebrating a Famous Canadian Birthday which includes designing a logo. Since this was going to be Sandra’s ninth QAL, I thought the theme should be a Black Cat since it has nine lives, just like the nine Hearts in this quilt.

When I was searching online for a Cat image, I happened upon this one—it was too perfect and so mmmeow since this looks like Sandra, doesn’t it? This reminds me of the mmmicked logo I made for the Rainbow Neighbor QAL with Sandra as MMMaleficent which I don’t think you will find online…yet.

From the bottom of my nine Hearts, I am once again thanking Sandra for hosting another fun QAL. It was another great pattern and weren’t the Hearts such a clever make? When I was gathering my notes for this project, one of my thoughts when deciding to make this quilt was naming it “What Heart Thou” and list nine attributes I aimed my heart to be; Happy, Strong, Sweet, Brave, Big, Healthy, Tender, Kind and, of course, Rebel. This could be a someday project and I would make each Heart in different shades of one color. I think Sandra already did this as a Scrap Challenge. As I’ve done in my past QAL Posts, I like to mention looking forward to next year’s QAL and suggesting a pattern—I think a MMMystery Quilt would be fun and a great possibility for me to follow the pattern—-mmmeow!

You can view the parade of Glowing Hearts Quilts and Pattern Here!

UFOs with Eunice

Eunice is my Studio Tormentor who in my head tells me to sew the right thing which usually means an UFO, a very old UFO. I put Eunice in time out last year plus Country Threads did not have a 2024/25 Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge so there was no project list  and my output this year is lower than normal. Usually at this time of year I had 10 Finally Finishes as opposed to only six so far this year. I pretty much enjoyed making the quilts made and wanted to continue but Eunice had other plans. This week I have two Finally Finishes and two Flimsies from the UFO pile and also one flimsie made several weeks ago before I finished my quilt for mmmquilts Glowing Hearts Quilt Along.These UFOs include one flimsie made over twelve years ago and two which the blocks were sewn last year but felt longer. I thought I’d do a short recap in the order of when they were finished.

If there’s a UFO which bugs me, it’s the one with the blocks made and ready to be made into a Flimsy. I finished three flimsies and this Heather Ross Hexie quilt was the first one. For some reason because I quilted my QAL quilt, I wanted to work on this one because the Hexies and Triangles were die-cut  for what felt like were years but to my surprise I did this last year. Speaking of Tormentors, Susan, my Downunder Tormentor made a Heather Ross hexie quilt last year and I was inspired to make one after I saw hers. After all I had wonderful prints in my Heather Ross stash which has been sitting in my stash for too long and large hexies were perfect. I’ll write more about this quilt once it’s a Finally Finish and I need to ask Sue’s permission to include her wonderful quilt in my Post.

My two Finally Finishes are these two door quilts; the Marcia Derse on the left and the Asian Cranes on the right.

• Marcia Derse aka Rose quilt (can you see my name in the center using the letters from her Alphabet panel) was a flimsy I made over four years and I was tired of seeing it hanging from one of the cabinet doors in my studio. I wanted this to hang this on the hallway door leading to the lower level, aka basement, studio. I did a combination machine and hand quilting over the past few months and the binding was sewn down this past weekend. The Rose Door Quilt measures 22”x38”.
• The Asian Cranes was a flimsy made over twelve years ago and would have remained a UFO if Demando had not requested I make a door quilt to cover the hallway electrical panel at his girlfriend’s house. His request was to use colorful fabric and something Asian and I knew I could use this flimsy by reworking it to fit the needed dimension. It helped that I knew his girlfriend’s favorite color is purple. I did simple straight grid quilting using a CT Essential Thread in Violet. Asian Cranes Door Quilt measures 22”x 36” and I’m hoping it’s the right size. It might be a 1/2” too short and I know how fussy Demando can be.

This is the one UFO which bugged me the most as the blocks were started around ten years and there are several reasons why I don’t like the pattern which I’ll explain when I write a Post after it is quilted. This is the Jack and Jill pattern inspired by Missouri Star Quilt Company and most of the fabric is Marcus Bros. Aunt Grace Ties One On. Although I had more fabric to make a larger quilt, I decided to make only a 40” square.

I have to say this is my favorite flimsy finish since it is the Fresh Air Quilt pattern designed by Mary Etherington/Connie Tesene of Country Threads. This is one of the great patterns featured in their Fresh Starts Quilts book, 2022. I cut the patches in 2022 but did not sew the blocks until December 2024. The fabrics used were Amanda Herring’s Jane Austen and Brenda Ratliff’s One Room Schoolhouse. This flimsy measures 64” square.

While Hubby is still recuperating from his back problems, my late night downstairs sewing/TV time has been curtailed, so I’ve been spending time in my upstairs Fiber Room which is where my wool stash is kept. One of the things I wanted to work on was reducing my wool stash so I’ve already made quillies (wool circles) and thought I would try rug hooking. I finished my first piece which measures 14”x16”, die cut most of the strips and I still on the fence if I’m “hooked”. My first piece looks like it was punched rather than hooked which has neater lines. I finally improved, as you can see on the very tiny lower right rectangle. I didn’t like the backing I used, it may have been tufting instead of Monks Cloth plus still have a lot to learn about the hoops and needle. I do know I don’t plan on hooking large pieces and will stick to small projects. 

I do like making the quillies but there’s only so may mats and pincushions to be made. There’s always Wool Applique.

I am looking forward to the Celebration of a Famous Canadian’s Birthday parade feature the many Glowing Hearts Quilts made. See you on Sunday, June 15th!

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Daydream Dicey Log Cabin Quilt

My Daydream Dicey Log Cabin Quilt was completed in March but I didn't want to post about it until I could take a photo of it with the darling Granddaughter. After all it was made in celebration of her Eighth birthday and another one to add to her ever expanding collection. The delay in finally posting was due to not being able to visit the GP House for seven weeks and even though we've made two visits since then, there wasn't time or the weather and or the darling Granddaughter wasn’t cooperating to taking a photo. Well, today the stars finally aligned.

Back in January, I received my Ruby Star Society Quarterly Club of fat quarters from their latest collections. There has been a very few times I actually made something from these Club packets, normally they sit on my shelf for way too long. I knew I wanted to make something right away with HSTs rather than the usual strips and squares.

I've been collecting Moonkin Stitchery patterns for the past year and after looking through them, I decided the Dicey Log Cabin pattern would be perfect. It is available as a free download Here, (not an affiliate link).

I added a few more fat quarters from my Ruby Star Society, Free Spirit and Art Gallery stash since I wanted more larger focus prints. I also thought the gray prints I found in my search would accent the pink, teal and gold prints nicely.

This is a fun and easy pattern but I want to mention that it's very important that all of the blocks are sewn and cut the same way as per the pattern. It's no surprise the angled-challenge quilter, which I am, made the first block wrong.

I made seventy blocks, 7x10 layout to make a 56" x 80" quilt.

I machine quilted with straight and wavey lines in Silver Aurifil thread. The backing was a gray and white stripe print from my stash and the binding was a gray plus print. I named this quilt Daydream Dicey Log Cabin based on the pattern name and because it was a dreami project which I worked on over days at a time rather than all at once.

Finally, a pic of the darling Granddaughter with her birthday quilt. The Master Quilt Holder did an excellent job of getting her to sit for this photo. She does not like having her photo taken but she does love her quilts (that’s what I tell her).

I do have another quilt finish for mmmquilts Glowing Hearts Quilt Along but won't be posting it until June 15th, the Famous Canadian Birthday Parade.  I am pretty pleased with already having this fun make finished but I can wait to share.

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

KFC Dazzling Diamond Quilt

It seems I sew through a Kaffe Fassett (KF) phase (not a rut) which I then have to force myself to make quilts with the other fabric lines in my stash. I call this a hiatus and much to my surprise the last quilt I made using KF prints was almost seven years ago, although there were some smaller quilts made using only shot cottons and stripes. My love for KF  fabrics was reignited by Kate/The Last Homely House whom I discovered last October and have now finished six KF quilts since then and have two more in the waiting wing. Since January I had two epic KFC (Kaffe Fassett Collective) finishes, Tumbling Block Quilt and Terry Rowland Scrap Challenge Quilt (just finished less than a month ago) and I now have a third one with the KFC Dazzling Diamond Quilt. One of the things I’ve learned since starting this new KFC phase is, if you live in the States like me, KFC has nothing to do with Fried Chicken but is the acronym for Kaffe Fassett Collective which includes Brandon Marley and Philip Jacob’s fabrics. My stash of fabrics includes KF fabrics purchased well over twenty years ago and now I have been having a buying spree of purchasing KFC fabrics to stash/catch up.

I wasn’t planning on making another diamond quilt with the leftover diamonds and strips from previous projects and thought a One Thousand Pyramid quilt would be different and fun to make. But, I didn’t want to sew long rows of triangles and thought the layout would be more interesting with 4”x8” blocks (approx.) instead; I just needed to make 422 which were easy to sew since I used my Sizzix Isosceles Triangle die. Of course, I needed to cut more fabric from my stash and it’s nice I have new scraps for the KFC scrap stash now.

I have to mention that being the angle-challenged quilter and having never taken a Geometry class, I learned the Isosceles Triangle is different than the Equilateral Triangle (which I thought my die was) because the two sides are equal but the base is not. I’ve lost count of how many times I sewed the wrong sides together which resulted in the blocks looking like this. Even once I was aware of this, I still made mistakes.

While sewing these blocks and not looking forward to laying out 242 4”x8” blocks, I came up with the idea of sewing two blocks together which then diamonds would be created and it would also give the quilt some resting spots. It was much easier to layout 121 bocks and I wasn’t so concerned with the same fabrics being close together. There are three different types of diamonds, one made with the same fabrics, two different fabrics and ones created by four HRT blocks which really gave Dazzling Diamond its name.

I machine quilted straight and meandering lines using #3817 Auril #50 variegated thread for the top and #2610 Blue Gray for the bottom.

I was really tempted to purchase yardage of a KFC print for the backing but decided to use yardage of two Philip Jacob’s prints, Shaggy Poppy and Morning Glory along with KF Vintage Bead Stripe Bead I had for way too long in my stash. Common sense prevailed since I realized I could purchased more KFC fat quarters and yardage with the $75+ saved. I just recently learned that a quilt shop only 15 mins away from the GP House has a fabulous KFC inventory so I am so looking forward to making a visit. Am I the only one when going fabric shopping and the hubby sits by the register, secretly asks the  staff to announce the cost as only being $10? I may have fooled him a few times.

Once again, I used a variety of different shades of the caterpillar stripe for the binding and were alternated between, blue, red and orange/green. I just love the way it looks against the many KFC prints and I will be on the hunt for more.

The KFC Dazzling Diamond Quilt measures 84” square and is now hanging over the bannister along with the Terry Rowland quilt.

Good news on the Master Quilt Holder who has been missing in action for awhile. On this beautiful day, He was feeling better to help me hang up the Dazzling Diamond Quilt outside over the screened room. I am jokingly saying a Two Pole System was deployed; one being a garment hanging pole you may have seen at stores and one with two legs who is not above sticking out his middle finger, but only to be funny and, to me, way cuter. The MQH is still in recovery mode and visits to the GP House are still up in the air. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can visit my darling Granddaughter this weekend.

With the finish of these three KFC quilts since January, I am saying Happy Epic Ending because I do NOT want to make another big quilt nor handquilt nor hand piece. My plans for this year was to make smaller quilts and maybe there still time I can do this for the remainder of 2025. Is it me, but the year is going by fast, right?

My big apologies for being very late in responding to comments with all that is happening  and the latest being I really need a new IPad. Demando has been given the assignment of deciding which one to buy or if I am going to inherit his IPad Air. Either way, I’ll have an attached keyboard which will be way more convenient than using the keyboard I have now and may help me sending responses out quicker.

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Another Epic Kaffe Fassett Quilt—Terry Rowland Scrap Quilt

Once again I’ve been quilting under the influence of Kate/The Last Homely House whom you can find on YouTube and Pinterest. Since discovering her last August, I’ve rediscovered my love for Kaffe Fassett (KF) quilts and fabrics and since then I have finished six KF quilts. I am counting this quilt as two finishes which you will see later in this Post. Terry Rowland, (TR) whom you can also find on YouTube, Pinterest and Facebook, designed this pattern as a Colorwash Scrap Challenge in 2022 and only aware of it after watching some of Kate’s YouTube videos. I wasn’t interested at first, especially since they were three-inch squares and I don’t do colorwash since it conjures up bad memories of when I worked at a quilt shop and Watercolor quilts were the rage. Boy, did I hate assisting customers with finding fabrics which blended together. Also, it involved rotary cutting your patches while sitting down, something I am not comfortable doing and I have ten good reasons not to which are my fingers. Well, something finally kicked in at the beginning of the year as to how I could make this quilt which I am happy to explain how my TR quilt was a fun make.

At the beginning of 2025, I was working on my Kaffe Fassett Tumbling Block Quilt and had added quite a bit to my already large stash of KF scraps from making over 25 quilts since I started quilting in 1997. Also, good Quilt Peep Mary gave me some nice chunks from a Kaffe Fassett Collective Layer Cake which she used to make her Baby Bulls Eye Quilt. This was the reason I decided to make my TR Quilt more controlled by using the same size width of 1.5” versus improv  with the Que sera sera of varying widths. In order to ensure the KFC scraps would be enough to make the 3.5” blocks, I decided all of my patches/strips needed to be 1.5” which I was happy to use my Sizzix die cutter for some marathon strip cutting.And would you believe, once the 1-1/2” strips were cut, I did cut them to size while sitting down since I have a wonderful side table next to my sewing machine and used my slotted ruler to avoid the rotary cutter from slipping. After that, each block fabric pairing was pinned together and I don’t think I ever used so many straight pins in a project before. I did this sequence twice because I went from making a 72” square quilt to a 90” square quilt. One lesson learned while cutting the strips was that large scale prints cut in small patches are interesting and I don’t always need to make large blocks to showcase the prints.

I made over a thousand 3.5” blocks and once these were finished and separated by colorway, I grouped nine of the same colorway together to make Nine-Patch blocks measuring 9.5”. Since I had a lot of  3.5” blocks made with the same fabrics, the Nine-Patches were made with either two different blocks set in a 5/4 layout, three and four different blocks and my favorite of nine different block. I did this because I thought it would be easier to layout 100 9-1/2” blocks versus 1,000 3-1/2” blocks. This turned out to be a mistake because the seams would not nest when sewing rows of blocks together so all of the seams needed to be pressed open. I should have sewn the blocks as four patches and will do this the next time if I ever make another TR quilt which I might since the 3.5” blocks were so addicting to make.

I sewed the Nine-Patch blocks in color wheel order, ROY G BIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet and then the very arduous task of  arranging them in a colorwash layout. 

I did a Google and Pinterest search of color burst images and used this one since it almost had the same colors as the TR blocks once I cropped the image. It was here that it would have also been better if four patch blocks were made instead. You wouldn’t think with a thousand blocks made that there would be so many times I had to rearrange the layout because the same fabric were right next to each other. BTW, salty, sailor talk is no longer since I am now saying ‘Oy which I hear used in some of the British, Scotland and Irish TV series plus the Svalbard videos I watch. It also rhymes with my maiden name and saying ‘Oy is way nicer and I did I say it a lot while working on the quilt layout.

Since the TR Quilt is 90” square, I was planning on using a wide back rainbow ombré print. But then I remembered I had sitting in my flimsy stash, an 84” square of a Turning Twenty pattern made with KF fabrics, which just so happen, the same prints were used in the TR blocks. I just needed to add 7” strips of a KF stripe to make it large enough for the backing. 

This is the second time I used a Turning Twenty flimsy with KF fabrics as a backing for a KF quilt. The first time was for the Stripe Quilt made in 2018.

I machine quilted with straight grid lines around each 3” square using #3817 Aurifil Variegated Thread on top and #2105 Yellow on the bottom. While machine quilting, I was thinking and worried about the binding since I really wanted to use a stripe but thought I wouldn’t have the right color. Then I remembered that I purchased fat quarters of the new narrow woven stripes and were the right colorway to match the colorwash effect on each side of the TR quilt. Just think, if I hadn’t had oral surgery last month and recuperated by purchasing these new fabrics at the quilt shop nearby, this perfect finishing touch to my TR quilt would not have been made possible. Since I thought I will be experiencing withdrawal from making this quilt with the wonderful KF fabrics, I decided to sew the binding by hand which is a lovely way to finish a much loved quilt.

Don’t you agree that I should count my TR quilt as two quilt finishes? Right now, this quilt is draped over the second floor bannister and it’s lovely to see when going up and down the stairs or coming in through the front door. The view and different colors can be seen by switching it around or flipping it over. There’s a sad reason as to why this quilt was finished sooner than expected since I only sewed the blocks while at the GP House. Because of the Master Quilt Holder’s back problem and subsequent Kyphoplasty surgery (special cement injected into the vertebrae) we have not been to the GP House nor seen the darling Granddaughter in over a month. I am thankful that this project always traveled back and forth between the two houses and was able to sew to take my mind off of  missing her so much. Hubby is on the mend and there is no way he could help me with holding up the TR Quilt outside. Besides, our Spring weather has been terrible so inside photos had to do. I am saying prayers, keeping my fingers crossed and growling at Hubby when I see him doing something that he shouldn’t so we may be able to travel next week after the doctor’s visit.

Wishing you a Blessed Easter and a wonderful weekend.

Linking up with;My Quikt Infatuation/NTT

Graphix Galaxy

Graphix Galaxy is my third Finally Finish quilt for 2025 and has unexpectedly bumped the posting of my second quilt finish which  is the birthday quilt for the Darling Granddaughter. Our plans to be at the GP House now was interrupted by the Master Quilt Holder (Hubby) continuing back problems and his needing to see the Orthopedic Surgeon for a possible Kyphoplasty procedure on his spine. The soonest he could be seen was on the Darling Granddaughter’s birthday which meant we needed to stay home for that and because he was in no condition to make the trip.  There is no way I could post her birthday quilt without a photo of her with it so hopefully there will be a joyful Post next month.

Graphix Galaxy was inspired by the Braque Quilt Pattern by Melinda Lin and I was made aware of this pattern by Kate from England. If you read my previous Posts, you will know that I have been inspired by Kate of The Last Homely House and I’m being a little cheeky here by saying not this Kate, but Smiles from Kate who inspired me to be a participant in the 2017 New Quilt Bloggers. When I saw Kate’s quilt on IG, I had to ask her if this was a pattern and she said this was the second quilt she made from the Braque pattern. My favorite quilt to make after strips and squares are ones with HSTs especially since they  can be neatly die cut. I really used my Art History Degree to good use by misreading the pattern name as Baroque which made be wonder why there were no curves in the quilt but then realized it was named after Georges Braque, a contemporary of Pablo Picasso, both of whom were pioneers in the Cubist Art Movement. A little embarrassment for me since my area of concentration was Modern Art and Architecture but in my defense my degree was earned over fifty years ago.

I knew my stash of Marcia Derse fabrics would be perfect for the Braque pattern and I’ve been wanting to use them especially since I’ve been buying her somewhat latest collections—Marble Run, Spotted  Graffiti, Random Thoughts, etc for the past years. I also added a Lonni Rossi black tone on tone print which I later decided to remove all the blocks using this print. There are four different HST blocks and I have to mention I really love making the large block on the upper left. 

My plan for making the blocks was to use the blacks, grays and lights for the large HST blocks and the bright colors for the small HSTs. I did not use the layout in the pattern because I thought my layout of just rows of HST blocks would be easier than sections of HST blocks but after multiple layouts I ended up with HST sections which made my angle-challenged mind spin or explode. My working title for this quilt was Kaboom since it seems some blasting is involved but I knew there had to be a better name which kept me up thinking what could it be. The flimsy was finished on March 15th and the plan was to maybe machine quilt it later after other flimsies and taxes were done.

It was decided the day before we were to leave for the GP House that the trip would not be made so I wanted to quilt my disappointment away by machine quilting Graphix Galaxy, even though there were other flimsies waiting, but this fit my mood. I did quadrant machine quilting which is what I call it by drawing an X across the top and then straight line machine quilt 1” apart using #2605 Steel Gray Aurifil thread. I think the diagonal quilting lines accentuate the prints and blocks. The backing was a distressed tone on tone gray print from the backing vault and the binding was a V&Co black and gray ombré stripe which I used the same print but in a different color for another Marcia Derse quilt.  Graphix Galaxy measures 64” square and the plan is to hang it in the second floor sewing studio.

Here’s some closeup pics of the wonderful prints in Graphix Galaxy. I knew I wanted this quilt to have a name referring to graphics and thought of names with comics but then remembered Demando calls them graphic novels and then thought of graphic artists having a paint ball fight. Before I chose the name Graphix Galaxy today,  I was going with Supernova which was what I wanted to call my Magical Stars quilt made last year for mmm quilts Luminous Layers QAL. Once I found out that a Supernova is not a super duper pretty star but an exploding star so I changed it to Magical Stars. I thought it was funny that I remembered the name Supernova and maybe came up with it because Sandra must have been ESPNing me since she later sent me an email alerting me of this year’s QAL and asked would I like to “preview”the pattern. Of course, so I sewed two test blocks before machine quilting Graphix Galaxy because I had some leftover quilt guilt from last year’s QAL. (I didn’t realize that I was supposed to test her pattern, just “preview” it until she announced it in an IG Post I’d made the blocks and I almost fainted in front of the Master Quilt Holder.) I understood the assignment this year and I tested the blocks with another fabric stash I’ve been collecting. I can tell you it’s another fun graphic print line and also a fun mmmake. Sandra will be announcing her new QAL on April 3rd which also happens to be her birthday.

Here’s hoping that someday I will finally make a Supernova quilt. I’m still sad that I will miss celebrating the darling Granddaughter’s birthday but it’s important that the Master Quilt Holder gets better. You will see that I only had indoor pics because I couldn’t ask MQH. Besides, it’s also very windy and cold today so maybe outdoor pics would have not been possible. And yes, I will be working on the taxes now.

Joining Kathleen McMusing/TGIFF

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT